Hey all!

Bit scary making An Actual Post, but I have a question for all you libby pros out there!

I just got myself a 🔗 Queens NYU non-resident card (holy heck it allowed me from the UK and they seem amazing compared to my local library - just incomparable, really! $50 a year - strongly recommend - thanks to whoever posted about it yesterday in club!) and now I feel like my libby tags are gonna get really confused.

Is there any good tricks for how to organise libby when you have multiple libraries? Maybe something like genre tags? I'm looking for minimal fuss and confusion, but be able to easily find something to read out of my main wishlist - especially given I have choice paralysis. (I previously had just a wishlist and a "notify me" list, plus a "read in 2026" list, but now there are so many more books available to me that it feels overwhelming already, and I want to cut down on that as much as possible.)

Thank you so, so much in advance!

Slinks back into my cave where it's not so scary and Out There

ᓚᘏᗢ ✿ ᗢᘏᓗ

𖹭 If I don't reply to everyone, please forgive me, I will appreciate every reply extraordinarily much, but I'm struggling with a migraine that keeps flaring up, so I'm up and down with being able to manage to function like a human this week. A new library card is sure keeping me happier though! 🥰

𖹭 Edited to try and clarify my question better because my AuDHD brain is not good at explaining stuff, lol. (Also I didn't realise that each tag will default to showing the library card with the lowest wait on it, hence part of my confusion was solved on that front, thanks, Teddy! 🙌)

Okay, I've heard of people collecting libraries left and right for access to various books on Libby, is this free or are people paying for it? I thought you had to live in the county to get free access to the library. I ask this because I live in a small town/some parts rural area and the Libby here doesn't have a lot of access to indie publications/indie authors. Also, I'm about to move to a different state, will my old Libby card disappear as soon as I apply and enter my new county's card in the app?

If you can't tell, I'm pretty new to Libby (I just started it about a year ago after I realized how much I was spending on books 😅). I'm still learning and navigating things, but I figured I'd ask since I've seen IG users constantly talking about all their Libby accounts.

So, I decided at the start of this month for a few reasons to support getting my life together and really stepping away from the consumerism of it all, I will be undertaking a No Spend for the rest of this year and most of, if not all, of next year, to get my spending under control and also work on paying down my debt and start saving for a flat deposit.

I have always been a prolific library user from a physical book pov, and since being able to use Libby on my Kobo as well it's been a game changer once I found a library that used it here in the UK.

However, buying books has always been a HUGE weakness of mine (alongside borrowing them) over the last few years particularly. Given reading is my main big hobby, I really wanted to move my habit from ‘buying’ automatically to ‘borrowing’ automatically to really work on resetting the consuming urge, and, actually, maybe having to endure some delayed gratification shock horror if there was a wait list at the library for said book. I also have a huge number of books on my own TBR shelves that I should be reading from before adding to them!

As part of this, to hammer the point home to myself, I decided to keep a running list of all of the books I borrow from the library, and how much they would have cost me to buy new based on the Waterstones price (I am a UK girl), and also by fair comparison because I do use it a lot, on the Kobo store as not all of my purchases would have been physical (I have a 75/25 spilt).

Fair to say not even one month in and i’m already shocked! I’ve read 11 books from the library this month and saved £165 against the physical price and £89 on the EBooks!!!

Just wanted to mention it for anyone who is doing something similar and who might want a little bit of motivation to see how much money you are saving, whilst still being able to enjoy what you love :)